Episode Summary
Not every song can be uplifting like Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y." or "Optimistic" by Sounds of Blackness. A lot of times, we listen to and love songs with questionable themes and lyrics or sometimes we just misinterpret the meanings. So, on this episode we're taking a look at some of the songs that made us do the Wee Bey face. How old were you when you realized that "Saving All My Love For You" was a sidechick anthem? Does Lloyd say fine too or 5'2" on "You?" Is Chanté Moore a bad friend? We get into these and a few others, so go ahead and click that play button!
Transcript
[Ad] Afros and Audio Podcast Festival. Visit afrosandaudio.com to secure your ticket.
Miguel: Welcome back to They Reminisce Over You, I'm Miguel.
Christina: And I'm Christina.
Miguel: So how often have you been listening to a song that you've heard for years, and then catch something that you've never heard before?
Christina: Often.
Miguel: Yeah, because of the improvements in our headphones and speakers and all that stuff.
Christina: That, and also, you know, sometimes you just listen.
Miguel: Yeah, that too.
Christina: You listen a little different.
Miguel: And then you're like Bruce Willis in the Sixth Sense, and you're the Wee Bey GIF, just in shock.
Christina: Wait a minute!
Miguel: At what you've heard and been listening to for all these years. So that's what we're talking about in this episode. The songs, the lines, the moments that just made us go, huh?
Christina: Go, go, Jason Waterfalls,
Miguel: Go, go, Jason Waterfalls. So you ready to just get into it?
Christina: Let's get into it.
Miguel: All right. So since you brought it up—
Christina: Let's just start with that.
Miguel: Let's just start with this one because this is what actually kicked off the process of doing this episode. And I remember you mentioned this to me a few years back. And I had never heard of it. And you've mentioned that someone said something about they thought the lyrics were “go, go, Jason Waterfalls.” And I'm like, how does that happen?
Christina: Instead of I mean, in case you haven't figured it out, it's “don't go chasing waterfalls.”
Miguel: Yes, we're talking about TLC's waterfalls right now.
Christina: I can't say I've ever had that issue.
Miguel: Me neither.
Christina: I'm going to say that this might actually, we could probably put this in the category of like cultural differences. Even though this isn't like, it's not like they're saying some kind of like slang or whatever, but there's a certain demographic that has seemed to confuse “don't go chasing waterfalls.”
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: With “Go, go Jason Waterfalls.”
Miguel: I noticed that it was-
Christina: If you catch my drift.
Miguel: I noticed that it was two things in particular. One, it was a lot of white people, so there's that. Secondly, and I'll excuse this, a lot of people said they thought that when they were kids. So that one I'll let go. But you have some adults who are saying, they thought it was either “don't go Jason Waterfalls,” and trying to figure out who the hell Jason Waterfalls is, or “go go Jason Waterfalls” and wondering why you want him to go. So I don't get it.
Christina: It's just something that, like I always say as a joke, but I cannot for the life of me—that's something I just don't understand why there was so much confusion over. But there is apparently.
Miguel: I don't get it personally, but some people just don't understand what the actual song was, even though if you listen to the song, there's no reference to anybody named Jason.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: It's not like they're singing about a particular person.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: They're just singing about a few events.
Christina: There's a whole bunch of scenarios.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So they don't use anybody's names.
Miguel: So if you were above the age of eight.
Christina: Like what happened?
Miguel: Yeah. How did you get caught up in that?
Christina: We also have to remember that Waterfalls was like a huge hit.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Right. So it definitely reached a demographic that probably didn't listen to TLC. Which again, I still, it's not like they have some heavy accent or they were using, like, some “inner communities slang” or anything. So I still don't really understand why it was confused.
Miguel: I have no idea. Like I said, anybody who was above the age of eight. Okay. You know what? Let me raise it up. Age of 10. I don't understand why you couldn't understand, “don't go chasing waterfalls.” And you're singing “Don’t go Jason waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and—” See it doesn't even make sense.
Christina: It doesn't.
Miguel: Oh, whatever.
Christina: Because there are definitely other, I've heard of people mishearing other lyrics that is clearly like a cultural outsider, right? Like when Jay-Z said, “Eat the cake Anna Mae.”
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: And people thought she said, he said, “eat the cake anime” as in like the cartoon.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: And it's like, well, obviously they have no idea who Anna Mae is. And the iconic line, “eat the cake Anna Mae” from the What's Love Got To Do With It, biopic of Tina Turner, if you didn't know.
Miguel: You had people actually trying to figure out what anime was called “eat the cake.”
Christina: Right. So those ones, I mean, it does sound like “anime.” So I can see that if you don't know the cultural reference, you're just like “anime?”
Miguel: Yeah, but just making that leap, I don't know.
Christina: Yeah, it's a little bit, it's a little bit interesting. And then also in formation when she says she's a “Texas bama” and I saw confused folks saying “Texas banner.”
Miguel: Yeah, that makes no sense. What kind of Texas banner would she be? Is she on a billboard?
Christina: Exactly.
Miguel: Like on the side of a bus, she's an ad at the Super Bowl. What kind of banner would she be?
Christina: Exactly. And the thing is, it's like there's definitely things that I've mixed up because I didn't understand the cultural context too. But I know when I'm confused, if that makes sense. Like remember when we talked about Player's Ball being a Christmas song, and I didn't know what a package store was. So I was like, it's Christmas? So is he like going to the post office to like send parcels? But I knew I was confused. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm not like, oh, yeah, he's talking about sending gifts. I was just like, I don't know, what's a package store.
Miguel: Oh man. Well, speaking of random songs with Jay-Z involved in them, the one that I can actually see people being confused on.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Not because I didn't understand it, because I knew what the words were. But now that I've heard other people's explanations, I can only hear that now. I can't hear the real words. So Empire State of Mind.
Christina: I already know what you’re going to say.
Miguel: I watched this video like three times today, and I clearly hear Alicia Keys saying “concrete jungle, wet dream tomato,” even though I know she's not saying that.
Christina: But now you can't un-hear it.
Miguel: But now that has been planted into my head. All I can hear is “ concrete jungle, wet dream tomato.”
Christina: See, I think those people are just intentionally mishearing just for funsies.
Miguel: Well, I'm assuming now they are, since there's all these TikTok and YouTube videos about it. But like I said, now that I've heard it, I can't un-hear it.
Christina: Yeah, I can't say—I guess I've never watched those videos. I've just seen it like in writing, so I'm just like, nah. I mean, I can hear why it sounds like that, but come on now, “wet dream tomato?”
Miguel: I think you should Google it and then watch it while it's playing. So as you're reading it, you can't help but to hear “concrete jungle, wet dream tomato.”
Christina: I guess.
Miguel: Like I said, I try and try. But if I read it while it's playing, I hear “concrete jungle, wet dream, tomato.”
Christina: Well, speaking of intentionally mishearing songs, you know, I sing this all the time, “secret Asian man.”
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Which it's actually “secret agent man.” I don't even know whose sings it. It's like, is it…?
Miguel: It's old. I don't know who actually sings it. Let's look it up.
Christina: It's a song that I used to hear when I had one of my office jobs. So it would just be on whatever easy listening radio station the office had. So I'd hear it. Obviously, I didn’t—I knew they weren't saying “secret Asian man,” but I would just be at my desk singing to myself, “secret Asian man.”
Miguel: It's a song by Johnny Rivers from 1966.
Christina: Okay. Yes.
Miguel: Secret Agent Man.
Christina: But now, just like you, I guess with this “wet dream tomato,” I can't un-hear “secret Asian man.”
Miguel: See? Once you hear it, it's not leaving you.
Christina: [sings] “Secret Asian man.”
Miguel: Oh boy.
Christina: Okay. What songs have you actually miss heard and not just talking about other people or intentionally mishearing?
Miguel: One that I didn't get until a couple of weeks ago when we were doing the episode with Amy Winehouse, and I forget what the actual line is right now. So I'm going to look it up.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Because I was singing something completely different for years. Oh, here we go. So it's on You Sent Me Flying. So she says, “with your battered jeans and your Beasties tee.” I was thinking “in your bad intentions” and something else. I don't remember what the something else is off the top of my head right now, but [sings] “with your bad intentions.” But it's actually “with your battered jeans and your Beasties tee.”
Christina: Yes. See, I never knew that line either. And I'm like, oh, that makes sense. Especially since she's always dropping little hip hop references. Of course, she'd be dating someone wearing like a Beastie Boys t-shirt.
Miguel: With battered jeans.
Christina: But see, I didn't know the whole line either. I would just kind of make it up myself. I'd be like, I thought she said “with your better" something. [sings] “With your better thing and your [making up words].” That's how I was thinking.
Miguel: Yeah, I thought it was “with your bad intentions” because you said or she said, “you sent me flying when you kicked me to the curb.” So “with your bad intentions” sounds like it would make sense.
Christina: I didn't even know words. I was just [mimics words]. Yeah, I thought it was “with your better” something.
Miguel: I can see that. But yeah, that's one that tripped me up.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: What about you?
Christina: Well, I mean, this is an age old argument.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: Lloyd. “Fine too” or “five two”?
Miguel: Okay. See, I have a problem with this for two reasons. There is one time on that song where he clearly says “five two.”
Christina: Because we listened to it together. And I swear he's saying both.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: I haven't, you know, I should have re-listened to it before we started recording. So actually haven't listened to it probably since that last time we listened to it together. But I swear he says both.
Miguel: He does. And it's only one time in the song where I can clearly hear “five two.” And there's a couple of them where it's like, this could go either way. And then there are a few where it's clearly “fine too.”
Christina: See, they both make sense. “Fine too” sounds better. “Five two” would be a little weird, but technically it makes sense. And I think in the earlier interviews, he would say that he said “fine to.” But now that he knows that this is like a debate, he's all cheeky about it and he won't confirm.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But I think I saw like an earlier interview and he says he said “fine too.” But I still think he said both.
Miguel: See, and he keeps playing both sides, too, because I saw a video of him somewhere last year and someone asked him what it was on stage. And he said that it was “five two.”
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: And then months later on the Breakfast Club, he said it was “fine too.” And a previous Breakfast Club interview, he said it's whatever you want it to be. So he knows and he just playing these games now.
Christina: Because he knows that if he keeps playing these games, we're going to keep streaming the songs.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: So that we can try to figure it out.
Miguel: I think we need to bring back the “fine too, five two” t-shirts and put them on the site.
Christina: Yeah. I took it down for a while because I just didn't like the design. But I was literally thinking about that.
Miguel: I thought about it earlier today.
Christina: You can decide for yourself how you want to represent. You can choose if it's “fine too” or “five two” on a t-shirt.
Miguel: Or if you're five two and fine, you can pick the check marks with both.
Christina: I'm five feet. Is that close enough?
Miguel: It isn’t. You got to be “fine too” or “five two” or both.
Christina: I guess that makes me “fine too.”
Miguel: So you got to choose “fine too.” You can't choose both.
Christina: Okay. So I don't know about the rest of y'all, but Miguel and I have decided it's both.
Miguel: Yes. Because he definitely says “five two” in one spot.
Christina: That's so silly. Speaking of silly.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: There's another one that we have figured out semi recently. It's Mary J. Blige in I'm the Only One. Is that the title of the song? I forgot now. “Don't be a fool like your daddy.”
Miguel: See, I heard that from day one.
Christina: I didn't. I heard it as “Don't be a fool like you have been.”
Miguel: No, I clearly heard from day one, “Don't be a fool like your daddy.”
Christina: Because I don't even know how I feel about “Don't be a fool like your daddy.” Maybe because I've been singing “like you have been” for how long has it been? 25, 30?
Miguel: We're at 30 years. It'll be 30 years in December.
Christina: “I’m the only one you need.” What's the actual title of the song again? Is it just I’m the Only One?
Miguel: I’m the Only Woman.
Christina: OK. Because, you know, the song, I mean, the whole album really is just like relationship problems. I'm like, of course, he's always been a fool or he's always acting like a fool.
Miguel: Like his dad.
Christina: “Don't be a fool like you have been.” But apparently it's “don't be a fool like your daddy.”
Miguel: Yep, it sure is.
Christina: So that that cuts even deeper than “don't be a fool like you have been.” It's like, don't be like your stupid daddy.
Miguel: I'm going to look it up right now just to confirm. But I am 98.5 percent sure.
Christina: See, that's the problem. Unless these lyrics are sanctioned by the artist, these random lyric sites don't mean anything.
Miguel: True. It's true. And this one has not been verified, but it says here, “if you want to be happy, don't be a fool like your daddy. I'm the only woman you need. Only one you need. Take me.”
Christina: See, see, that's another one. You said, “I’m the only woman you need.” I've always saying it as “I’m the only one you need.”
Miguel: Even though it's on the track listing as I'm the Only Woman.
Christina: Oh, duh. Yeah. You know what? That just hit me right now. I've always saying it as “I’m the only one you need.”
Miguel: That's funny.
Christina: Duh.
Miguel: You're having a breakthrough right now.
Christina: Yes, I'm having a breakthrough right now.
Miguel: Nope, it's “I’m the only woman.”
Christina: Oh, God. I'm so stupid. That's the name of the song. But to my defense, there are often songs, like the title doesn't match the lyrics necessarily. That's true.
Miguel: That's very true.
Christina: Yeah. OK, we have a live breakthrough. “I’m the only woman you need,” not “I’m the only one you need.”
Miguel: “Don't be a fool like your daddy.”
Christina: “If you want to be happy.”
Miguel: “Don't you be a fool.” That's exactly how the song goes. Trust us.
Christina: All right. So those are some misheard lyrics. I'm sure we have more. Do you have any more? Or do you want to move on to the next lyrics topic?
Miguel: I do have one.
Christina: OK.
Miguel: And I just think this one is stupid. Someone on a list that I was looking for said “sweet dreams are made of cheese.”
Christina: Oh, no.
Miguel: And that just made me laugh.
Christina: I think that's just people being silly. And do you have any like personal ones? Any revelations? Oh, wait, there was one. It was an older rap song.
Miguel: OK.
Christina: What was it? And it was one of these like rap guys was talking about it. We saw a video on…
Miguel: Oh, yes. You're talking about Skillz when he was talking about Audio Two, Top Billin’.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Yeah. That one is a mind blowing experience because even listening to the song as a kid, I'm like, you know what? This doesn't make any sense. But we're going to have to just go with it because that's the only thing we as a collective across North America could come up with. And I'm going to pull it up so I can get the actual lines because you have to hear it in full to understand what I'm talking about. And I know that people who are listening to this are going to be saying the same thing that I did. And I don't remember how Skillz said he figured this out. And we can link to the video[1].
But it's Audio Two, Top Billin’. You know the drum track, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So his verse goes, “MC am I, people call me Milk. When I'm bustin’ up a party, I feel no guilt. Gizmo's cuttin’ up for the suckers that's down with me.” So that's what we thought it was until Skillz dropped this video. So it actually goes, “Gizmo's cuttin’ up for the suckers that's down with nei-ther one of us. That's how I feel.”
Christina: “Nei-ther,” not “me.”
Miguel: Yeah. So he, so he stretched that “neither” out over two lines and pretty much hip hop community was like, what the fuck? So for 40 plus years, we've been talking about “the suckers that's down with me.” So I always took it as like, all right, he got some suckers in his circle.
Christina: But that don't make sense. Cause why would you want people to know that you got some suckers in your circle?
Miguel: Because he's better than the suckers in his circle. Like, yeah, the suckers is down with us is fools, but not me and Gizmo. That's the way I took it. When he's actually saying, “down with neither one of us. That's how I feel to be down. You must appeal.” Yeah, yeah. That's a big one.
Christina: That's a big one.
Miguel: Cause I had no clue. This song was released when? This song was released in 1988. And I found out the actual lyrics in 2023.
Christina: So would you say that's your biggest one then?
Miguel: Yeah, gotta be.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: It has to be because it seems like no matter who listen to the song, all had that same reaction like what the fuck? That's like a collective mind blowing moment for people between the ages of 40 and 60.
Christina: Yeah. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get the full mind blowing experience since I didn't know that song that well anyways.
Miguel: Yeah. I've been singing this song since I was a child.
Christina: Like I know the song, but I don't know the song.
Miguel: Since I was a child and I'm a fully grown man with grays in my beard now. And just found that out.
Christina: All right. I think that's a good high to end for the misheard lyrics.
Miguel: I think so.
Christina: So, let's talk about some problematic lyrics. And there's a lot, so I think we might have to, like, condense this.
Miguel: Yeah, I'm only interested in one in particular, and you probably know what that is. Bell Biv De Devoe, Do Me. This is the biggest one. And again, I had no problem with this song for 30 years. And we were driving down the street one day, and it was playing. And as I'm playing it in my head and listening to it, I'm like, what did he say?
Christina: “Backstage, underage, adolescent. How you doing? Fine, she replied.”
Miguel: “I sighed, I like to do the wild thing.” I don't know how many times I've heard this song in my life.
Christina: Not only that, everybody loves to do the rap.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So it's not like, it's like, you know, a lot of times when we misinterpret songs, it's because we pay attention to the chorus only or something, right? But everybody liked to do the rap.
Miguel: I knew this rap word for word since I was like 13 years old. And it just hit me a couple of years ago, like he said, what? So that's a big one for me.
Christina: And the fact that it was like a twofer, he said “underage, adolescent.” He didn't say it once, he said it twice.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: And then in recent interviews, he tried to like push it off on, on Busta Rhymes, cause he's one who wrote, was it Busta Rhymes that wrote that verse?
Miguel: Yeah, Busta, allegedly. See, it's not even Ronnie who said this, Ricky says this in an interview, that Busta Rhymes wrote this. So he's throwing Busta under the bus.
Christina: It's like you still said it though.
Miguel: And Ricky ain't even there, or Ronnie's not even there. So it's like, why are you throwing both of them on the bus? First of all, we thought that Ronnie wrote his own raps anyway, now we're finding out that Ronnie ain't writing his raps, and then you tell me Busta Rhymes did it? That ain't right.
Christina: “Backstage, underage, adolescent.”
Miguel: “How you doing? She replied, I sighed. I like to do the wild thing.”
Christina: Well, we started off with a bang with this “backstage, underage thing.”
Miguel: What else you got?
Christina: I have another one, it's not quite as bad, but it's also not great.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: I have two things to say, because it's a problematic lyric. It also ties back to certain folks not having the cultural reference.
Miguel: All right.
Christina: So first part with it being problematic is Montell Jordan. “She's a chicken.”
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Get it On Tonite when he’s—
Miguel: That's my favorite line, by the way.
Christina: Cheating on his girl. He's telling the girl that he's chasing that his main girlfriend is a chicken, which I don't know, we can't confirm, but I think there was some talk that this is his wife, the woman.
Miguel: I don't know if that's true, but I read that this is who he was singing the song about, his current wife, who was his girlfriend at the time.
Christina: We cannot confirm, so we don't want to be like the gossip blogs.
Miguel: That's the Lipstick Alley rumor. Yes.
Christina: But whether or not this is his wife or whatever, he's calling his main girl a chicken to the girl that he's chasing. And the video makes it even worse because his main girl is having like this big night and he doesn't want to be there to support her because he wants to run around the club with his side chick.
Miguel: Yes. And I mentioned this and I keep referring to our own episodes, but we did an episode about Montell Jordan and I mentioned the fact that he's out with another woman. He can't blend in because Montell Jordan is six foot eight.
Christina: Yeah, there's no hiding.
Miguel: There's no club that he's going to where he can blend in.
Christina: One of her girlfriends is going to see him. I saw your man at the club last night. So, okay, it's a problematic lyric in the sense that that's pretty rude. Call your main girl, “She's a chicken.”
Miguel: It really is.
Christina: Not even just like, okay, you know—
Miguel: She gets on my nerves.
Christina: She gets on my nerves. We got into a fight tonight and I just wanted to like be out somewhere else. Or she doesn't even have to get on your nerves. I just think you're pretty. So anyways, so that's the first part with it being problematic. Now, the cultural reference, you know, chicken short for chicken head, short for silly woman or whatever. I was looking up the lyrics for some reason and I inadvertently clicked on Genius, which is the worst. So if you don't know what the Genius lyrics is, it's like people can make their own annotations about what the lyrics mean. And by people, it means literally anybody.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: So somebody highlighted the” she's a chicken” line and annotated it as “she's afraid.”
Miguel: Of? What is she afraid of?
Christina: She's just afraid because she's a chicken.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: I don't know. Maybe this person thinks that Montell is annoyed with her because she's a scaredy cat.
Miguel: I guess.
Christina: Whatever. And that's why we don't use those sites.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: Okay. So I have one more that I think it's more tone than lyrics.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: And it just hit me yesterday because I was listening to my little like ‘80s playlist and Girlfriend by Pebbles. Because the song is her just telling her friend, you know, your man is treating you bad and you're worth better.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But the tone of it is so accusatory. I don't know if it's just like, you know, the sassy nature of songs at that time, but she was like, “girlfriend, why would you let him treat you so bad?” And it's like, oh, that sounds kind of accusatory rather than supportive. Like, “how could you let him treat you so bad?” But then, and the whole thing is just like, you must resist, you got to do this, you got to do that. But like I said, the tone just doesn't sound very supportive. But then as I was listening, there's like this little rap, right? So she's like, “to believe or not to believe,” blah, blah, blah. And then she said, “you've lied your last lie and I've cried my last cry.” So I'm like, oh, is she projecting onto her friend? Or is she talking to herself in the mirror?
Miguel: I'm going to say, now that I'm listening to the song in my head.
Christina: “I’m out the door, babe. There's other fish in the sea.”
Miguel: Yeah, because I don't know the song very well. But now that I'm thinking about it, I think she's talking to herself.
Christina: I think it makes more sense that she's talking to herself in the mirror. And I just made that connection because, as I was saying, the song sounds like she's talking to a girlfriend. “Girlfriend, how could you let him treat you so bad?” But then when it changes to “I’m out the door, baby.”
Miguel: Yeah, she's definitely talking to a mirror bitch.
Christina: Yeah, just like Issa.
Miguel: Yeah, that's who she's talking to.
Christina: Because now the tone makes more sense because it's like you're talking to yourself. You're just like, oh, I feel so dumb. I let this man do this to me. Where you're more likely to like be hard on yourself than your friends. Right?
Miguel: Yeah, that's what's going on here.
Christina: She's talking to a mirror bitch.
Miguel: Yeah, Pebbles is getting the talking to from Pebbles.
Christina: Because first I'm like, oh, this doesn't sound very supportive.
Miguel: It isn't. And there's another—
Christina: Why would you talk to your friend like that?
Miguel: There's another song we're going to talk about later that is literally this.
Christina: Not supportive friends. But now that I've kind of heard the “I” in the other verse, I think it is her talking to herself.
Miguel: She's definitely talking to herself. Like, I don't know all the words to that song, but I'm going with her singing to herself.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: That's just me.
Christina: Yeah. The general sense of the words is just like, you need to leave him and you're better than this. But the tone was just a little harsh for if you were talking to a friend that's feeling bad. All right. So we decided she's talking to herself in the mirror.
Miguel: Yes. Yes, she is. So let's run through this one really quickly because it shouldn't take too long because we're only talking about opening lines.
Christina: Best opening lines.
Miguel: Yes. So what are your favorite or some of your favorite opening lines?
Christina: So again, I heard this not too long ago, a song that I haven't heard in a while and you just came up in my suggestions or shuffle or something. So Sunshine Anderson has this song called Lunch or Dinner. Okay. Most of us know her from Heard It All Before.
Miguel: That's the only song of hers I know.
Christina: Lunch or Dinner is a cute song and I actually like it better.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So the song is just basically just kind of like she's talking to a dude and just kind of basically like, hey, you like me, I like you, we should get lunch or dinner sometime. But the opening line is, “I can tell that you're used to dealing with chicken heads who have no kind of class.”
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: That's her opening line and that's her convincing him, hey, I'm better than these chicken heads you usually deal with. Let's go for lunch or dinner sometime.
Miguel: Wow.
Christina: It's funny because you would think with an opening line like that, it sounds almost combative in a way. But the song is like a cute mid-tempo song. It sounds like Tamia's So Into You or Deborah Cox, Who Do You Love. It's that mid-tempo laid back song. But it's actually a really cute song. But it's just we should go out for lunch or dinner sometime. But that's the opening line. “I can tell that you're used to dealing with chicken heads who have no class.”
Miguel: I don't know the song, so I'm going to have to listen to it after we record this.
Christina: She's just like, I can actually talk to you on your level. I'm a good woman. Let's go for lunch or dinner sometime.
Miguel: That's funny.
Christina: So I like that one.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: I think the classic one, Erykah Badu, “I’m getting tired of your shit.” Tyrone.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Can you imagine being at that show where she performed that for the first time? Can you imagine hearing that for the first time live and in person?
Miguel: Well, that's why the crowd went crazy when she said it.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: They're like, oh, this is different. This wasn't on Baduism. What's this?
Christina: Yeah. So that's a good classic opening line. What about you?
Miguel: This one, I don't really like the song very much. But the fact that it just opens with “It's Britney bitch.” That's kind of cool.
Christina: Yeah. She's like, I've arrived.
Miguel: You know what it is.
Christina: “Britney bitch.”
Miguel: I'm back.
Christina: And it works. It actually works for her.
Miguel: It does. And again, I'm not a big Britney Spears fan, but I was in the streets when they were playing this in the club all the time and the club just goes silent. You just hear “It's Britney bitch.” It just starts moving.
Christina: What else you got?
Miguel: A classic from Mr. Christopher Wallace. “Who the fuck is this? Paging me at 5:46 in the morning. Crack of dawn and.”
Christina: And that's why people love him as a storyteller.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Because he's already painting a picture for you from the first line.
Miguel: Yeah. “Who the fuck is this?” I'm trying to sleep and my pager is going off. It's really vivid, too.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: And I mentioned this to you before, but in the song, he's mentioning M.O.P. Because when the guy who calls him and pages him at 5:46 was like, hey, that nigga's talking shit about you. And he was like, nah I'm cool with them. He's like, no, not them. Them other niggas. So he at first thought they were talking about M.O.P. but it had to be cleared up that, no, it's not them. It's somebody else. Because he was cool with M.O.P.
Probably my favorite, I can't even say it without laughing. My favorite opening line on any song is from this guy from Nashville named Petty.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: And he's not a big name or anything. He's actually a really good rapper. And for whatever reason, he keeps deleting all of his music every couple of months. So this song is really hard to find, but it's a song on one of his mixtapes called Petty Presley. And the song is called Harsh on a Hoe. And basically he's talking about this girl that he used to date and the breakup just ended badly. So he opens the song with, “I heard you had another baby. Congratulations on that ugly motherfucker.” And I heard that and was just floored.
Christina: Well, his name is Petty.
Miguel: His name is Petty. And this song is very petty because he opens by calling a brand new baby, ugly.
Christina: Just guilty by association.
Miguel: Yes. because of something his mama did or said, now the baby is ugly. And he said it at the beginning of every verse on this song too.
Christina: Oh man. So the first line, plus he had to punctuate it by repeating it.
Miguel: Yep. Just in case you didn't get it the first time.
Christina: Oh man. You think she ever heard the song?
Miguel: I'm sure. I'm sure she did. Another good one is miss Amy Winehouse. “What kind of fuckery is this?” It's another great opening line. But those are my, my choices. That's what I'm going with.
Christina: I'm sure I had more. But that's it for my current list. And I'm sure once we finish recording I'd be like, oh yeah.
Miguel: Of course.
Christina: Because this one was specifically first lines.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: There are definitely other songs where there are great lines.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: But they're not the first line.
Miguel: Yeah. We were going with the openers here.
Christina: All right, so we've talked about lyrics and lines and whatnot, but there are also questionable or misheard or misinterpreted songs.
Miguel: Yeah, and this is what we're here for. This is the main event. This is the main course. This is dinner now.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: We've served you some appetizers and some crudités, and the main course is coming out now.
Christina: Well, you know what? I'm gonna start with this, because my mind was blown when I realized that Whitney Houston's, Saving All My Love, is about her being a side chick. And again, I think this is one of those where I knew the song from when I was kid. And so I'm not putting the pieces together. You just know the chorus, “I’m saving all the love.” But I can't remember when I realized this. It was pretty recent. But pretty much every single line.
Miguel: Yeah, from the gate.
Christina: Yeah. It's clear.
Miguel: Yes. There's no mystery here.
Christina: Yeah. Like there's no mystery. So I'm just like, all I know is, you know, “I’m saving all my love for you. Tonight is the night. The feeling is all right.” That's what I knew growing up.
Miguel: Right.
Christina:But she starts the song. “A few stolen moments is all that we shared.” OK. OK. Maybe you can interpret that, oh, it's a long distance relationship. No, no. Next line. “You've got your family and they need you there.” It's cleared up. This isn't a long distance relationship.
Miguel: See, what's funny is I know that opening line from the song. And I guess from that point on, I just stopped paying attention to it because those first two verses, I don't recognize shit.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: But we get to verse three and I knew that word for word.
Christina: The thing is, I know bits and pieces of the very obvious like, “a few stolen moments, it's all that we share.” I stopped listening again.
Miguel: I tapped out right there. And then in the third verse, because I listened to it earlier and I was like, yeah, I can sing along with this because I know it. But at that point, I'm not thinking about cheating. I'm thinking, oh, this dude is coming over and I'm about to put it on it. That's what I was thinking.
Christina: The second verse, she says “It's not easy living all alone. My friends try and tell me to find a man of my own. Each time I try, I just break down and cry.” I knew parts of that. I knew that “I’d rather be home feeling blue,” something about breaking down and crying, but I still just not piece it together.
Miguel: I zoned out.
Christina: I think I maybe thought it was a relationship that had ups and downs. I don't even know what I thought it was.
Miguel: I don't remember anything from those first two verses other than the opening line.
Christina: When I finally like somebody forced me to listen to the lyrics, I probably just saw a video somewhere and I was like, you've got your family and they need you there. Wait a minute.
Miguel: What family?
Christina: Family. So that's wife and kids.
Miguel: Yes. Maybe a mom's living with them too. Mother-in-law suite
Christina: But like I hear these words, I'm like, but I remember pieces of it. “Be patient, just wait a little longer.”
Miguel: Like I said—
Christina: I don't know. I just didn't get it.
Miguel: I can sing it from the third verse on. But the second verse completely gone. I think it's one of those situations where when they play noises that only people of a certain age can hear. I think those two verses.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: All I heard was instrumental.
Christina: Yeah. because the first half of the song, the first three verses is definitely side chick. The second half is just like, my man's coming over tonight. I've been saving all my love for him all day long.
Miguel: That's all I remember is those last two verses.
Christina: Because even when she's like “no other woman is going to love you more.”
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: That's just her saying like how much she loves him. Not that I love you more than your wife does.
Miguel: That's how you took it. I took it as her saying, I'm going to throw this thing on you like nobody else. That's how I understood it.
Christina: Talking about “we'll be making love the whole night through.” That one night, that you get to see him out of how many nights.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: The fact that she's just like, I don't care, “I’m saving all my love for you,” even though you can only give me a few stolen moments.
Miguel: Here and there. At the food service conference twice a year in Dallas.
Christina: That's a reference.
Miguel: Is it?
Christina: I thought you were making a For All Mankind reference. Actually, she wasn't a side chick.
Miguel: No, she was just there.
Christina: But they could only, anyway, so that if you watch For All Mankind, there's a character in there that sees her love once a year at a conference.
Miguel: Yeah. I was just speaking in general.
Christina: Okay. Yeah. I think also what made it, I would have never thought of her as being basically a proud side chick.
Miguel: Yeah, she is.
Christina: It's because, like I said, I knew this song from when I was a kid, and Whitney Houston was a princess, a pop princess, and she was glamorous and this and that. So you wouldn't think that she's just pining away for some married man. “He's a good man, Savannah.”
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: So I just—like, why would she be the side chick? Whitney Houston is the main chick. What are you talking about, right?
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: So I just, I think my little brain just was too immature to understand the themes, but also thought Whitney Houston was like a princess. So like, those two things don't really make sense.
Miguel: She wouldn't do anything like that.
Christina: Yeah. She wouldn't and who would make her the side piece.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So that really like blew my mind, even though it's so obvious. But for some reason, many of us did not know that.
Miguel: Well, there's another one that I listened to growing up with my mom or stepfather playing it and right from the very beginning of this song to first verse. He says, “I know it sounds funny, but I just can't stand the pain. Girl, I'm leaving you tomorrow.” He opened the song up by saying, I'm leaving you tomorrow. He's scheduled to break up. I'm talking about Easy by The Commodores, and Lionel just came out the gate saying that I'm breaking up with you.
Christina: Tomorrow.
Miguel: Tomorrow. I never noticed that. I always took it as him just saying like, yeah, I'm cool because everything is easy like Sunday morning.
Christina: See, I didn't know that song well, so I just knew the chorus. Right. “Easy like Sunday morning.” So I never thought that song would be about, I'm leaving you tomorrow.
Miguel: Yeah. The song is the first verse is about him breaking up with her. And the second verse is him telling the rest of the world, I ain't gonna be who y'all want me to be. I'm about to be me. I want to be free. I want to fly high, so high. And I never caught any of that. I only caught the “easy like Sunday morning.”
Christina: That's all I knew. But that first verse.
Miguel: “I know it sounds funny, but I just can't stand the pain. Girl, I'm leaving you tomorrow.”
Christina: But why is he so whimsical singing about, “I just can't stand the pain?”
Miguel: Exactly. That's why I didn't even pay attention to it.
Christina: Because he's easy like Sunday morning, that even his pain is easy going?
Miguel: Yeah. I'm leaving you tomorrow.
Christina: Tomorrow.
Miguel: Because I'm easy. Easy like Sunday morning.
Christina: See, that's what happens, well, for me, anyways, that's what happens when you only pay attention to the course.
Miguel: Yes. So the next one on the list, I'm going to skip it for right now because I want to save it.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Because like I said, the main course is coming up and this is the main course. So another one that is like mind-blowing lyrics that I didn't get. And it's not because I'm not smart. It's not because I'm a little bit slow. It's because I didn't understand what the hell he was saying. So we're going to talk about Murder She Wrote by Chaka Demas and Pliers.
Christina: You just knew “murder she wrote.”
Miguel: Yeah. I knew the part.
Christina: “I know this girl named Maxine.”
Miguel: I knew all the part that Pliers was singing. Didn't know shit about what Chaka Demas was saying until he was like, “follow me.”
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: I didn't know what he was saying.
Christina: Me either until—this was quite recent, actually.
Miguel: Yeah. This was a couple of years back that we heard it the first time and then it got picked up again about a week ago on Twitter and TikTok. So yeah, you can get into what the song you thought was about, and then we can talk about what it's actually about.
Christina: I just thought it was about a pretty girl who was killing them with her beauty, basically. Like the murder part, I just thought it was like, she's so pretty that these men are just falling for her.
Miguel: Yes, that's how fine she was, that it's just a figure of speech.
Christina: Yes, that she's just killing you hoes.
Miguel: Yeah, like, oh, I can never get with her. Murder, she wrote. That's how I took it.
Christina: Same.
Miguel: But.
Christina: “This girl named Maxine, her beauty is like a bunch of roses.”
Miguel: Yeah. So why wouldn't I think other than, like I said, I'm not understanding anything that he's saying.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Come to find out she's being slut shamed, being “too flirty, flirty,” running around with “Tom, Dick and also Harry.”
Christina: And also all these men of different ethnic origins.
Miguel: She's hitting all the different races. And every six months she's having an abortion.
Christina: Yes. Every six months!
Miguel: So that's the murder that they're talking about.
Christina: Because when I looked at the lyrics, I'm like “every middle of the year, this girl go have abortion.” I'm like, wait a minute, you're saying every year?
Miguel: Every year.
Christina: So the murder they're talking about is abortion.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Not she's just, you know, breaking hearts, taking names.
Miguel: No, they're talking about having an abortion.
Christina: The same murder. And they're also like slut shaming her.
Miguel: Yes, which it goes along with all these dance all songs that we all love and dance to in the clubs.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Lyrically, they really bad. A lot of them are horrible and shouldn't be played in public. But we still out here doing the butterfly to them at Jamaica Gold in Century City.
Christina: Yeah, I did not know.
Miguel: No clue.
Christina: And now that I've read the lyrics and listened to the song, I could pick up some stuff that I used to mumble along with.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: But I was like, oh yeah, now I can hear the abortion line.
Miguel: Clearly.
Christina: But I didn't hear that before. I just heard “this girl named Maxine.”
Miguel: “Her beauty is like a bunch of roses.”
Christina: “Murder she wrote.” Too busy shaking ass to pay attention to the abortion.
Miguel: I knew none of these lyrics because you watch the video and everybody's dancing and having a good time. Oh, OK. Now I recognize it.
Christina: Yeah. You just see everybody dancing and have a good time. Like I didn't even get like even the slut shaming part. It was just like a bunch of girls just out there doing their thing. Like it’s dance hall, they're supposed to look like that. Right.
Miguel: “A pretty face and bad character.”
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: I understand that now. Three days ago, I didn't know what he was saying.
Christina: “Pretty face, character dirty.”
Miguel: What?
Christina: Excuse me?
Miguel: Exactly. Yeah, I had no clue what they were talking about in that song. Just grooving to it for years. All right. So this is the one that you've all been waiting for.
Christina: This is the one that pretty much was the inspiration for this episode.
Miguel: It sure is. This and the “chasing waterfalls.”
Christina: Yes, “go go Jason Waterfalls.”
Miguel: But specifically this song, because every time we hear it, we have to have a conversation about it.
Christina: And I've hated it since then. So this wasn't something—a new revelation.
Miguel: Yeah, it's not a song that has hidden lyrics. Everything is right out on Front Street.
Christina: Although people have different interpretations of it.
Miguel: They do. But for the most part, people tend to think it's positive and they like it for its positivity. I'm here to tell you, this song ain't positive. This song has big hater energy written all over it. So we're talking about Chanté Moore and Chanté's Got a Man.
Christina: “Chanté's got a man at home.” So go home then. Girl, go home.
Miguel: Girl, go home. Because it's presented as this anthem for women.
Christina: If she had left it at that, I think it was fine. If she was just like, Chanté's got a man. I love him so much. He's at home. But she had to take it up a notch.
Miguel: She did. She basically is taking this opportunity to shit on her friends and their relationships.
Christina: And not only that, not only she's shitting on her friends, she is minimizing some very serious issues.
Miguel: Yes, especially in the video. Because in the song, they kind of just skate right past it. But in the video, they skate past it with like visuals, with visuals and hyper speed.
Christina: So, okay, the worst line is, “I’m sorry, he's cheating on you, beating on you.”
Miguel: What makes that part funny is she says,” I can't help if he's cheating out, cheating on you,” and then there's that pause, “beating on you.” Like they gave you that little pause and be like, what next? “Beating on you.”
Christina: There was a time where people love saying cheating on you, beating on you, because it like rhymes. So she's not the only person who has said that phrase. But if you are sitting around with your girlfriends and you're like, my man is so good because he's not cheating on me and beating on me? Excuse me? So as you were saying, the video makes it worse.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Because in the video, she is pointing to each friend as she's saying each line. So they're just sitting around having a girls night at one of their houses, just sitting on the couch. So for each line, she points to her friend. First line. “I’m sorry that your man ain't home.” Points to that one. “I’m sorry that yours left you alone.” Points to that one. “It's such a shame that your man is playing games.” Okay. This one, not only is she pointing to Terry from En Vogue, at the beginning of the video, Terry's telling them that her man pushed her. So she's the one getting beaten on.
Miguel: She said, “your man is playing games.”
Christina: “It's a shame your man is playing games.” Then Terry just laughs.
Miguel: Right. They all laughing at her and throwing popcorn. They should have been jumping her ass.
Christina: They should have been like, take your ass home then. Then in the little skit at the beginning when Terry is talking about, oh, he pushed me and all the girls are like, oh, men are terrible. Men ain't shit. She's all like, there's a lot of good men out there. I know because I got one.
Miguel: This ain't the time or place for this conversation, Chanté.
Christina: She just said she got pushed.
Miguel: You should be saying, where is he at so we can go beat his ass.
Christina: We ride at dawn. At least my man is so good, he'll whoop his ass for you.
Miguel: But Chanté is like, couldn't be me.
Christina: Couldn't be me, can't relate.
Miguel: Because in the second verse, she says, “now, why did you let him beat you down? Don't you know there's good men around?” So this is the part where she tries to frame it as like an anthem and she's trying to uplift. “Don't you know how beautiful inside you are, girl? And don't let nobody steal your pride.” But I'm getting ready to go home to my man. Good luck.
Christina: See, there's parts of the song that would have been fine. But those other parts that are not fine, ruins the whole thing.
Miguel: I got a man at home. I got to go. Hopefully, you don't get your ass whooped tonight. Byeee!
Christina: Couldn't be me, though.
Miguel: They really throwing popcorn and giggling with it.
Christina: Yeah. Get out of here. Go home to your stinking man, then.
Miguel: I got to go. My man coming to pick me up. I need to know what happened after she left. I need to know the conversation the girls had when she left.
Christina: Yeah. I mean, the song was too old to have a group chat, but I'm sure they had some version of a group chat.
Miguel: The group chat was sitting right there in the room, with two of them's mamas sitting in the kitchen. There was a whole bunch of people in that house for them to commiserate with when she left.
Christina: After her man came to pick her up.
Miguel: Can you believe this bitch?
Christina: Yeah. So if she had just left it at the “Chanté's got a man,” hey, if she wants to celebrate her man, that's fine, but not at the expense of her friends getting beat up.
Miguel: “Creepin’ out, cheatin’ on ya,” dot, dot, dot, “beatin’ on ya.”
Christina: “Beatin’ on ya.”
Miguel: Yeah, that was unnecessary.
Christina: Yeah, that song-
Miguel: Chanté's got a man, he's good to me.
Christina: That song is egregious. But like I said, for the most part, I'd say it's pretty split actually. The first time I was- and you know, I'm going by YouTube comments, which isn't exactly scientific. But the first time I looked at it, there was overwhelmingly more people thinking it was a positive song. But when I looked at it yesterday, it's pretty split where people are like, she's a shady friend.
Miguel: I saw one comment that just said that she didn't have to roast her whole crew like that.
Christina: She did not. She did not.
Miguel: For no reason at all. Unprovoked.
Christina: And I get it sometimes. Like, you know how sometimes you have a friend who just does not listen to any advice and you're just tired of hearing about it. But this was still egregious.
Miguel: Yeah, she said at the beginning, he pushed me.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: And you're like, so what? My man's good.
Christina: There's good men out there. This is your fault. I mean, don't you know you're better than that?
Miguel: Why you keep letting him beat your ass, girl?
Christina: Yeah, I mean, I, I, as far as I know, luckily, none of my friends has ever told me any man has put any sort of hands on them. But I would like to think that I would have reacted differently.
Miguel: Yeah, I think most people would be like, where he at?
Christina: I got a man at home.
Miguel: Like, where is he? So we can go get his ass.
Christina: Exactly.
Miguel: Not, couldn't happen to me though!
Christina: Like, oh, my man doesn't.
Miguel: Right. Time and place, Chanté. Time and place.
Christina: Oh, yeah.
Miguel: And the thing is, I like some Chanté Moore songs, but not this one.
Christina: Yeah, so if you thought Chanté was celebrating her man, I guess in a way she was, I would advise you to listen to the rest of that song.
Miguel: Listen to it with new ears.
Christina: Shady, shady, shady.
Miguel: But the fact that in the video, she sat and pointed at ‘em individually.
Christina: Individually. I'm sorry that your man ain't home.
Miguel: I'm sorry that yours left you alone.
Christina: And it's a shame your man's playing games by pushing you.
Miguel: And then I heard you say that men are all the same. She hit four different women with this shit, and they didn't jump her.
Christina: They just threw popcorn at her and giggled.
Miguel: I'm sure they had to be one of them in the room that was like, I'm going to put these hands on you, girl. You talking too much. But yeah, Chanté's got a man.
Christina: I never liked that song.
Miguel: Me neither. Not at all. Like I said, I like other Chanté Moore songs.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: But this ain't one of them.
Christina: She's a great singer, though. I will give her that.
Miguel: She is.
Christina: Because I saw her perform that song live at some award show recently, and I didn't know she could hit like those super high notes.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: I didn't know she'd do that. I was like, oh, wow. So I'm not disparaging her as a singer at all. I just hate this damn song.
Miguel: Yeah, I'm not a fan of this song at all.
Christina: And it's not positive.
Miguel: It isn't. It's a spiteful, hateful song wrapped in positivity. Oh man. So yeah, that's the songs that we have. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Christina: I'm sure there's more.
Miguel: There's tons more.
Christina: Let us know if you have some that you would like to add to the list.
Miguel: Yes. Hit us up. Let us know which ones that you feel a way about. We can talk about them on the air and get back to you.
Christina: Yeah. Or you had some revelations about.
Miguel: Yeah. You found a part of a song that you never heard before. Let us know. Hit us up. All right. I think this is a good place for us to wrap up.
Christina: That's that on that.
Miguel: All right. This has been They Reminisce Over You. Thank you again for coming to check us out. We try to do this every two weeks. So we'll be back in your ear holes two weeks from this Friday. If you want to check out our other episodes, go to our website at troypodcast.com. We got tons of good stuff over there.
If you want to buy some merch, you can also go to our store, which is teethang.com. T-E-E-T-H-A-N-G dot com. Get yourself a hat, t-shirt, hoodie, something good. Christmas is coming up, so you can buy some gifts for your friends and family. It's not a bunch of podcast stuff. We've got all sorts of pop culture stuff, so go over there and check it out.
Also, we have a monthly newsletter called Liner Notes. So if you would like to get some of this goodness in your inbox once a month, go ahead and do that. Sign up at troypodcast.com/newsletter. It's free 99. You don't have to pay for it. If you don't like it, I will give your money back.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: It's true. That's all we really got for this episode. Like I said, we'll see you in a couple of weeks. So, bye.
Christina: Bye.